The invention relates to a method for relieving back pain and improving back health. More particularly, the invention relates to a back pain and back health protocol selectively incorporating various exercise protocols designed to promote proper posture and breathing and to stretch and strengthen the muscles of the back, neck, shoulders, abdomen, and hips.
Back pain is a problem for a significant number of people. Numerous causes can lead to pain in the back. One common source of back pain is the normal human preference for using muscles on one side of the body. A right-handed person, for example, tends to use the right hand, arm, and leg more often than the left, leading to increased muscle strength on the dominant side. This can create a bilateral strength imbalance and cause bilateral misalignment of the spine. Anterior/posterior strength imbalance and misalignment of the spine and other joints can either be caused by or result in poor posture. When the neck, shoulders, back, and/or hips are subjected to bilateral or anterior/posterior misalignment, chronic muscle contraction or muscle spasm can occur in an involuntary attempt to prevent further misalignment. A lack of exercise can also lead to weakness, low flexibility, and spasms in the muscles of the back, neck, shoulders, abdomen, and hips. In addition, stress can contribute to back problems. In stressful situations a xe2x80x98fight-or-flightxe2x80x99 response sometimes occurs leading to involuntary contraction of muscles and misalignment of joints in order to prepare for fighting or fleeing. If unrelieved, these muscle contractions and joint misalignments can eventually lead to muscle spasms and back pain. The prevalence of back problems can thus be attributed to any one of, or any combination of, bilateral dominance, poor posture, inactivity, and the skeleto-neuro-muscular response to mismanaged stress.
Traditional treatments for back pain do not adequately address the causes of back pain and/or do not provide the back pain sufferer with a long-term plan for improving and maintaining back health and preventing back pain. Physical therapy tends to be symptom-based. It has the capability to offer temporary relief from excessive muscle contraction (i.e., muscle spasm) but typically does not offer the back pain sufferer instruction in the exercise protocols, posture models, breathing methods, and stress management techniques that can provide long-term relief from back pain. Chiropractic therapy has the capability to realign joints but, as is the case with physical therapy, clients are typically not taught proper posture, proper breathing techniques, or proper exercise habits. Without adequate education, clients of both physical therapy and chiropractic therapy tend to return to the habits that caused their back problems. Analgesic and muscle relaxant drug therapies can provide temporary relief from back pain but do not address the causes of the pain.
The present invention offers an improvement over traditional back pain prevention and treatment protocols by addressing the causes of back pain such as stress, poor posture, and poor muscle tone and by providing the back pain sufferer with the education needed to carry out a long-term program for improving back health and preventing future back pain.
The present invention, hereafter generally referred to as the Back Pain/Back Health Protocol, relates to an integrated back pain relief and strengthening program comprising: joint realignment and muscle relaxation through proper posture; stress management and muscle relaxation through proper breathing; and muscle stretching and strengthening through an exercise program focused on the muscles of the back, neck, shoulders, abdomen, and hips. By providing instruction on maintaining proper posture, the Back Pain/Back Health Protocol offers back pain sufferers relief from the stress caused by muscles involuntarily contracting and spasming in an attempt to realign and/or stabilize misaligned joints. The breathing techniques used in the Back Pain/Back Health Protocol aid in muscle relaxation and, together with proper posture, maximize the benefits of the exercises performed in the procedure. The exercises in the Back Pain/Back Health Protocol are designed to stretch and strengthen the muscles that are commonly implicated in the occurrence of back pain. The combination of proper posture, proper breathing, and muscle stretching and strengthening exercises prevents the occurrence of back pain and provides back pain sufferers a unique and effective means of attaining long-term relief from back pain.